Personally I would approach it like a process you would like to complete, in order of importance.

I would have a list of extra features and a list of stuff that has to be there, in order of priority. You work your way through the stuff you have to have in your forum and then once that is complete you can release it for the world to enjoy, then over time develop or find plugins for the extra bits you would like to have. A good starting point is the starter theme I created for bbPress, I think you have already looked at it, so get that working really nice, then move onto the next bit in your list.

It’s kind of difficult for anyone to list off all your requirements and reply with perfect plugins, it is easier for people to take one feature at a time and help with that.

I recently installed Buddypress and BBpress and was thinking about how I could add all the nifty features of phpBB such as BBcodes and stuff. Then I remembered that hardly anyone uses most of them and here’s a big reality check – Facebook doesn’t even let you use bold or italic and they have a BILLION users.

Bottom line – don’t waste time adding a bunch of stuff that you think might be cool but actually have little or no effect on activity.